David Studwell

David Studwell is a contemporary British artist and printmaker who studied at Central Saint Martins School of Art. Having worked as an artist for over twenty years, Studwell harnesses the spirit of the sixties and seventies, the cult of celebrity and the legacy of Warhol to produce iconic screen prints.

His works explore the darker side of fame, nostalgia and Americana — police mug-shots of well-known stars show them at their most vulnerable, or at their most defiant. Private moments of icons at screen-tests or during reflection become graphically public, produced in bold and vivid colours. Studwell's practice also tracks the legacy of photography, technology and photographers in the twentieth century. In 2018 he worked with Sir Elton John and the renowned photographer Terry O'Neill to produce *Elton John: Home Run — Dodger Stadium 1975*, a six-colour screen print with diamond dust, re-working O'Neill's iconic photograph of Elton at the height of his fame. A handful of co-signed Artist's Proofs were produced; one was sold at auction through the *London Evening Standard* in the lead-up to Christmas for a sum in excess of £22,000, with all profits going to the Elton John Aids Foundation.

"It's the technology that enables me to bring those images from the bygone eras into the present."

Since training at Central Saint Martins, Studwell's skills have been honed over more than twenty years, marking him out as a true professional. His work has been placed in numerous top-tier private celebrity collections, including those of **Kate Moss**, **Sheryl Crow** and **Nile Rodgers**. Studwell works through the medium of silkscreen printing with a demanding level of technical precision and bold, vibrant colour, often finishing his pieces with razor-sharp diamond dust. The signature Studwell look is one of high-end classic Hollywood glamour — evoking high fashion while eschewing passing fads.

"I feel that I'm different to many artists in the sense that my work harks back to bygone eras. The golden age of Hollywood, the fifties and the sixties have always attracted me. My focus is on a period when the word 'celebrity' actually meant something. Unlike today when reality TV or social media springboards unknowns into the spotlight."

Unlike the Street, Urban and Punk movements which grew from their sixties mother like angry, bastard children, Studwell's work is the pure-bred heir. His silkscreens directly reference the counterculture cool of the sixties and seventies, with a cutting-edge contemporary style apparent in his striking juxtapositions of beauty, fame and stardom with a Technicolor exposé of inner vulnerability. Studwell has gone back to the past in order to comment on the present.

"My motive is to explore celebrity — its dark side as well as what we see in magazines or on TV. That's why I create the mug-shots: to display the flaws celebrities have, to prove they are only human like you or me. I also want to recreate the mood and glamour of those bygone eras, while putting my own unique contemporary stamp on each piece."